I Was 9 In 1974

we were kids in the backyard

playing soldiers and rock stars

no internet or cell phones

or keeping up with the Joneses

out of nowhere it changes

the life we knew, rearranges

we never saw it on tv

but we knew she was thirteen

lived down the road from my grandma

trashed our world like a jigsaw

we had to follow a curfew

our innocence in the rearview

know one knew who would do that

how could someone be so bad

to take the life of a young girl

our new view of a cruel world

no one knew how we got here

security replaced with fear

a small town under fire

wrapped in tears and barbed wire

***

Now I'm sixty and some days

the thoughts of her keep me awake

there was no closure or victory

the animal got away, free

her mom and dad died not knowing

and the world just kept on going

but for in a moment of my life

we stood face to face with senseless crime

long before it was mainstream

when life was for chasing your dreams

in an instant it was over

shrouded in memory and clover

****

A/N: When I was a kid (1974) we moved in with my grandmother for a short time in Markle, Indiana, while our house was being remodeled on the farm. During that time, Lori Brickley, a childhood neighbor (13) walked down to the general store to mail a letter and never returned home. After 3 days of searching they found her murdered and abandoned in an old outhouse, three doors from her home. She had been stabbed over thirty times. Small town never felt the same again.

Attached is a small video of those events. No one was ever captured for this crime and her closest relatives are gone. Such a tragic loss of innocence.